


Unconventional

by quantumducky



Category: Asagao Academy: Normal Boots Club
Genre: Awkwardness, F/F, First Dates, Flower Festival, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-22
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2020-01-23 18:17:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18555187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quantumducky/pseuds/quantumducky
Summary: You know things are bad when Hana Mizuno is the one who most knows what she's doing in a social situation.Or: Hana asks Kakusu to go to the festival with her.  Mai is confused, but supportive.  Things go surprisingly well.





	Unconventional

**Author's Note:**

> this has been half-finished for months and i finally sat down and wrote the ending when i realized it was the game's birthday today

“Have you decided who you’re taking yet?”

Mai’s eyes were shining with her excitement for the upcoming Flower Festival.  Of course, she was hoping to go with Jared, but she also couldn’t wait to see romance blossom for her best friend!

Hana hesitated before answering.  “I… I was thinking of asking Kakusu, from our class.”

There was a silence.  It didn’t last long, but it was a hardworking silence, one of the sort that can stretch five seconds into five minutes.

Finally, Mai broke it.  “What.”

“W-what’s wrong with that?”  Hana said defensively.

Mai looked incredulous.  “She’s a robot. You can’t date a robot.  That’s just a fact. She’s not, like… a real person.  Plus, doesn’t she hang out with Mimi?”

Hana shifted nervously, but stood her ground.  “I’m going to try.”

“Are you sure?”

“...Yes?”

Mai paused for a few seconds, looking Hana over.  Then she seemed to come to a decision. Or give up.  It was hard to tell.

“You know what, go for it,” said Mai.

“Really?”

“Yeah, I mean, why not?  You’re a main character, so unless you’ve messed up  _ really _ badly, you should get a good answer!  And I don’t see how you could have messed up with Kakusu, since you’ve barely said two words to her and all.”

If that was supposed to make Hana feel more confident, it definitely wasn’t working.

“Go on, get your… uh… robot girl!” Mai cheered, practically shoving Hana out the door.  She even scattered paper flower petals over Hana for extra luck. “Go get senpai to notice you!”

Once Hana was out of the room, Mai shook her head in the direction of the door with a puzzled expression.  “That girl is so weird.”

 

* * *

 

A few minutes later, Hana was wandering through the school.  She had no idea how to find Kakusu. Where her locker was, where she hung out, who Hana could ask in order to find her- all this was an utter mystery to Hana.  No one even seemed to be around. Finally, she found a cluster of students in the cafeteria. At the center of the group, Hana spotted a yellow jacket- one of the Hidden Block guys- and Kakusu.  They appeared to be… playing a card game?

“Pardon me,” Hana said again and again, pushing through the small crowd to reach her target.  Not wanting to interrupt the match and annoy all these people more than she probably already had, she stood at the edge of the table and waved discreetly at Kakusu, who was too deep in concentration to look up and see her.  Hana tried to work out the rules of the game they were playing, which involved battling with various cute cartoon monsters, but quickly gave up. Instead she watched the players. Kakusu looked as impeccably neat as ever- Hana would describe it as unnatural, but of course it was.  Her school uniform, her hair, everything was perfectly in place. But unlike some  _ other _ apparently flawless people she could name, Kakusu wasn’t intimidating… or at least, not for that reason.  There was always the uneasy feeling that she might be able to kill you with lasers or something if she really wanted to.

Hana let her attention wander and almost didn’t notice when the game ended and everyone started walking away.  There was still a small crowd in the way, but she caught up with Kakusu in the hall just outside the cafeteria.

“Um- excuse me?”

“Oh!  Good afternoon, Hana, I did not see you there.”

Hana stalled, twisting her hands together and desperately looking for a way to move the conversation from small talk to where she needed it to go.  “So… how… did your game go?”

Kakusu’s eyes flashed briefly as she recalled the match.  “I lost, but my skills are improving.”

“Oh.  That’s nice, I guess.”

Kakusu waited a few seconds for her to continue the conversation.  When nothing further was said, she just smiled in Hana’s direction and turned to continue on her way.

“Wait!”

She turned back.  “Yes?”

There was no good way to lead up to this.  Hana was just going to have to say it. She closed her eyes, fully aware she was beet-red from the awkwardness of this situation, and blurted, “Will you go to the festival with me?”

Kakusu didn’t respond for a good ten seconds.  Hana could hear soft whirring sounds from her direction: an indication that she was thinking hard.   _ She’s trying to figure out how to turn me down, _ part of Hana’s brain told her.   _ This was stupid.  I should have listened to Mai earlier. _

When Kakusu finally spoke, she seemed to be considering her words carefully.  “You’re… inviting me to attend the Flower Festival with you as a friendly gesture, yes?”

Hana opened her eyes.  It wasn’t an outright  _ rejection, _ but… not really what she’d been hoping for.  “...Yeah, that’s it.” Going as friends was still better than not going at  _ all, _ and she’d waited too long to be able to make plans with anyone else after this.

Kakusu smiled.  “I would like to be your friend, Hana.  I accept. Where should we plan to meet?”

“Um… outside the dorms, I guess,”  Hana suggested.

Kakusu nodded.  “I will see you there,” she said, turning to leave again.  It may have been Hana’s wishful thinking, but she seemed to be happier now.

 

* * *

 

On the day of the festival, Hana got ready as quickly as possible.  It was hard to know how to make a good impression in this situation, but she was pretty sure that if she was late Kakusu would know down to the millisecond how long she’d been kept waiting.  Not that it should be that big of a deal, because they were going as friends, of course. Mai gave her a look when she thought Hana couldn’t see her, like she was still trying to work out what was going on here.  Hana pretended not to notice and waved goodbye to her roommate as she hurried out the door.

Just as Hana had expected, Kakusu was already waiting just outside the entrance to Primrose Hall.  In retrospect, there was no reason they shouldn’t have met  _ inside _ , given that they both lived there.  ...Well, they both had rooms there, anyway.  Hana pushed open the doors and tried to look like she hadn’t just run down a flight of stairs.

Kakusu turned to face her and smiled- it was her default expression, to be fair, but still probably a good sign?  “Hana, it is good to see you.”

Hana smiled back.  “Hi. Er- likewise.”

Awkward silence.  Was Hana supposed to say something else now?  She wasn’t used to being the more experienced person in  _ any _ situation, much less social ones.

“So, should we… go?” she finally said after a few seconds of internal panic.  Kakusu nodded and they started walking.

As they drew closer, they could hear the sounds of the festival: people laughing, chattering and occasionally screaming, intermingled with various loud noises and music.  Hana perked up and walked a bit faster.

“I haven’t gone to anything like this in a while,” said Hana conversationally.

“This is the first festival I will have been to.”

“Really?”

“I haven’t existed for very long,” she reminded her.  “I did not want to go alone for fear of not experiencing it correctly, and in previous years no one asked me.  Most people prefer to attend festivals with current or potential romantic partners, which I did not have.”

“Right.  I suppose that makes sense.”  Hana felt vaguely embarrassed about not having known or guessed at those things.  Fortunately, a convenient subject change was literally right in front of her. “What do you want to do first?”

“You know more than I do.  What do you think is best?”

Hana thought about it.  She usually went for the food first, but that was probably out of the question in this case.  “There are games,” she suggested. “I didn’t bring much money, though…”

“I have money,” Kakusu assured her, to Hana’s surprise.  “My roommate told me I would need it.”

Hana hadn’t considered the possibility that Kakusu had a roommate.  She was probably either the easiest person to share a room with or the worst, depending on how she... worked..?, but anything approaching a personal conversation could wait until Hana had recovered from the previous awkward moment.  Besides, they’d found the festival games.

They picked a booth at random, a ring toss game, and Hana went first.  It wasn’t as easy as it looked. Something about the way the booth was set up seemed designed to sabotage depth perception.  She almost made it on the last of three tries, but not quite. Then Kakusu stepped up to play. She picked up her first ring, looked at the target, and went still for a good ten seconds.  Her eyes flashed, and then she threw all three of the rings perfectly onto their peg in quick succession. Hana was deeply impressed, although maybe she should have expected that sort of thing.

The booth’s operator gaped, but recovered quickly, having the sense not to express shock at someone winning his game.  “Well done! Step over here and pick out your prize…”

Kakusu paused again.  This decision was taking much longer than actually winning the game did.  “Hana,” she finally said, “what do you think I should pick?”

“Hm?” Hana turned back to her, having been looking around for their next destination.  “I don’t know. Which one do you like?” That didn’t seem to help. “Uh… How about that,” she suggested, pointing at random to a fluffy pink stuffed rabbit.

Kakusu nodded.  “This one, please.”  The man handed it over to her, then turned around to reset the game for the next person.

“Let’s not block the booth.”  Hana led her out of the way and started wandering vaguely in a direction.  She wished she had any idea what her not-date would like.

“Where are we going now, Hana?”

“Oh.  Um… I was just going to… see what looks like fun?”

Kakusu looked around, appearing to think very hard about something.  Hana waited patiently until she finally said, “And what exactly does fun look like?”

Hana didn’t know what she had  _ thought _ would happen, really.  “Just, um… like something you think you would enjoy,” she tried to explain.  She was beginning to think it was hopeless when Kakusu slowly nodded, looking over at her with a smile that was a little  _ too _ innocent.

“I think I enjoyed seeing that man’s face when I won his game.”

Hana blinked.  “Oh! Okay! Let’s play more of the games, then!”

Kakusu’s smile widened.  “Let us play  _ all _ of the games.”

 

* * *

 

They did not manage to play all of the games—people started getting suspicious after a while and wouldn’t let them anymore—but they certainly went through quite a few.  Getting banned from trying any more might have been for the best, honestly, because there were only so many stuffed animals one robot girl could carry. (There  _ were _ still the crane games, but those didn’t have anyone manning them who could react to Kakusu’s success, so there wasn’t much point.)  The two found a bench somewhere relatively out of the way, and sat down to sort out the spoils.

“Perhaps now would be a good time to ask, Hana… what is one supposed to  _ do _ with these?”

Hana couldn’t help but laugh at Kakusu holding up a plush banana with a mildly disturbing face, entirely baffled as to its purpose.  “You just sort of… have them. You can sleep with them if you want, but some people think that’s just for kids. But… I don’t know, they’re just soft and cute, I guess.”  It was beginning to occur to her that stuffed animals were not, in fact, all that useful. Which… she probably knew that already, but she never really thought about it before.

Kakusu tilted her head.  She still didn’t look like she understood.  “Ah. I don’t believe I can fully appreciate them, given that I have a limited sense of touch and no need to sleep.  Hana, would you like them?”

Hana nodded slowly.  She didn’t mean it to be a response so much as a way to show she was thinking, but before she could say anything she was nearly buried under all the plushies.  Good thing they were soft. She dug her way out to see Kakusu smiling at her hopefully. Unfortunately, the first words out of Hana’s mouth were, “What was  _ that _ about?”

The smile faltered.  “I’m giving them to you.  You know, like a gift. People give gifts to other people they like, right?”

“Ye-es…”  Even though she knew Kakusu didn’t mean it like  _ that, _ she could feel herself getting flustered.  “But…”

She looked a bit disappointed.  “If you don’t want them, it’s okay…”

“I’m not- I mean- winning things to give them to someone is… kind of something you do for a person you like  _ romantically?  _ I just- people might get the wrong idea?”  Hana wanted to sink into the ground and become one with dirt right about now, please.  She was completely overthinking it, this was stupid, why had she even said anything? Why did it matter if they maybe-kind-of looked, to the casual observer, like they were on a date?  After all, it should be pretty obvious to anyone who actually knew them that Kakusu wouldn’t actually-

“But that’s what I meant.”

Hana bluescreened.

“I apologize if that upsets you- I understand that you didn’t intend for it to be a romantic date when you asked me here, but I saw no reason to lie once you brought it up.  I  _ was _ being truthful when I said I would like to be friends with you- the two aren’t mutually exclusive, correct?  …Are you okay?”

She stared blankly for a few more seconds, and finally squeaked out, “I- you- like?”

Kakusu tilted her head.  “I don’t understand what those words mean in that order.”

Hana took a deep breath, then another, then stopped herself before she could hyperventilate or something from too much deep breathing.  “You… romantically… like me?”

Her smile returned.  “Yes,” she said simply.  “I’m glad we’ve cleared up this misunderstanding.”

“Oh.  Good.”  She went back to staring, struggling to process the current situation.

“…Hana?  How would you like to proceed?” Kakusu asked tentatively.  “I should remind you, I have no experience-”

“Neither do I!”  Hana laughed, a bit manic.  “I don’t know what the hell I’m doing!”  A moment later, she blinked, startled by her own outburst.  “Um… sorry, I just- I don’t know what happens next any more than you do…”  She pressed her hands over her face and mumbled mostly to herself, “I’m screwing everything up, why did I even think this was a good idea?  I have no  _ idea _ how people do this!”

A moment of silence.  Then, Kakusu reached up and carefully peeled away one of Hana’s hands.  “Let us suppose,” she said slowly, “that what  _ people _ do is not necessary information here.”

“…Hm?”

“Romantic relationships are… personal, yes?  In this situation, I don’t need to know how other people do it.  How do  _ you _ want to do it?”  When Hana didn’t respond right away, she added, “What do you think you would enjoy?”

Hana finally uncovered her face the rest of the way, revealing its newly acquired chromatic similarity to the bow in her hair.  “I, uh… sitting here? W-we could, uh, talk- it’s still kind of loud, but-?”

“We could find somewhere quieter to sit,” Kakusu suggested.

“Yeah!  Yeah, good idea.  There’s- we could go to the bonfire?  It’s… further away from all this.” She was incredibly relieved that at least one of them didn’t lose her entire brain in the face of one (1) awkward conversation about feelings.

“That sounds like a very good place to sit and talk, then.”  She stood and began gathering up the assorted toys, and Hana followed suit.

“I would also… enjoy… holding hands with you?  While we walk there?” Hana cringed at her own awkwardness, only to be startled out of it- and into nearly dropping everything- by a cool hand slipping into her own.  She looked over at Kakusu, who smiled and gave her a nod.

“I believe I would enjoy that as well.”

Hana finally smiled back.  “I’m glad.”

\---

Bonus:

They didn’t even make it halfway through the games area before it became clear that there was a problem.

“Kakusu, I appreciate the gesture, but-” Hana scrambled to catch a stuffed bear with sunglasses before it could hit the ground.  It was  _ hard _ carrying all this stuff when they each only had one free arm.  “-But I really don’t think I can take all of this back with me. I mean, where would I even put it?”  She had a vision of her bed covered in a pile of plush toys, while she herself slept on the floor to avoid knocking them off.  “I don’t think it’s going to work.”

“I see what you mean,” Kakusu agreed.  She was slightly preoccupied, trying to keep a unicorn balanced using her face.  “Perhaps we could ask if anyone else wants them.”

Hana nodded.  “Yeah- oh, I think I see Mai over there!”

It took them longer than anticipated to actually make it to the bonfire.  Some of the toys were given away to their friends, some to kids who were upset that they couldn’t win the games themselves, and a few were thrown in the general direction of the more intimidating Normal Boots club members as Hana speed-walked away to avoid having to actually talk to them… or explain why she was throwing stuffed animals at their heads.  In the end, she decided to keep just one: the rabbit she’d picked out randomly from the first game. It  _ was _ pretty cute, after all, and matched her hair.  And she may or may not have been planning to sleep with it at night while thinking extremely sappy things about her new… well, whatever this relationship was currently classified as.  But nobody needed to know  _ that. _  That was for Hana to know, and for Mai to very quickly find out and tease her over later.


End file.
